Georgia detectives investigate unfired round close to where Debbie Collier was found murdered

Georgia detectives are investigating an unfired round near the area where Debbie Collier’s body was located naked and burned after sending an ominous message on Venmo. 

Investigators said Tuesday that the bullet could be a clue to solving the 59-year-old mom’s murder after she went missing earlier this month, Fox News reports. 

After Fox’s news team located the unfired round about 30 yards from the scorched crime scene and alerted detectives, Pat Diaz, a former Miami-Dade homicide detective, said the bullet could serve as proof that Collier was kidnapped. 

‘That’s an important piece of evidence, and that’s something [one or more suspects] could’ve dropped on the way out the door,’ Diaz said. 

Collier, a real estate officer manager, disappeared on September 10 and was last seen alive shopping at a Family Dollar store 90 minutes from her home in Athens. 

Before she went missing, she sent a $2,385 Venmo payment to her daughter, Amanda Bearden, 36, with a message that read: ‘They are not going to let me go love you there is a key to the house in the blue flowerpot by the door.’ 

The body of Debbie Collier (pictured) was discovered on September 11, naked and charred just a day after she was reported missing

The unfired round was found about 30 yard from the scorched crime scene (above) where the body was found along with items Collier had purchased just a day before she went missing 

Earlier this week, the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office released a video of Collier shopping at the store just moments before she vanished. 

She appeared ‘calm and not in fear of anything’ as she was wearing a replica of Herschel Walker’s shirt from his time at the University of Georgia, a blue skirt, what appear to be black boots with slight heels and a red sun visor as she walks into the store in Clayton at 2.55pm on September 10. 

She is then seen at the cash register buying a rain poncho, refillable torch lighter, a 2-roll pack of paper towels, a 7.5 x 9.5 tarp, and a reusable tote bag. 

Her body was found a day later with several of these items nearby in a wooded area by Tallulah Falls.  

Eight minutes after leaving the store, her daughter said she received the mysterious message. 

Collier’s black van was discovered the next day at the entrance to a densely wooded area off Route 15, 60 miles north of where she lived with her husband, Steve, 67.

Police had ruled out kidnapping and suicide as possible causes of the woman’s death, and are now focused on arresting her killer. 

Video from the Family Dollar store in Clayton, Georgia shows Collier shopping there around 3pm on September 10, the day she disappeared

 She bought a rain poncho, refillable torch lighter, a 2-roll pack of paper towels, a 7.5 x 9.5 tarp, and a reusable tote bag

No one has been arrested for Collier’s brutal murder, and there is no indication that either Bearden or her live-in boyfriend, Andrew Giegerich, are considered suspects.

Bearden has a history of lying to police and violent lovers tiffs with Giegerich, her MMA fighter boyfriend who says the pair have been ‘interrogated’ over her mother’s killing.

In May last year, police intervened in the couple’s relationship after Amanda phoned 911, claiming Andrew had ‘broken in’ to the house to beat her.

She showed them photos of bruises on her arms and shoulders to prove it.

She was however arrested for a falsely reporting a burglary, after police determined he was living in the home and had full access to it.

Pictured: Forensic gloves lay nearby along with pieces of paper and what appears to be a strip of a book cover near the scene of the crime

Giegerich, 27, was arrested on September 4, 2021, for violating a no-contact order and banging on his on-and-off-again girlfriend ‘s home.

He claimed his Bearden was stealing money for drugs from him and had kicked him out.

The arrest came almost a year before he alleged wrote a threatening handwritten message, contained in police evidence files, stating: ‘If you or your family ever come near me again I will hurt them.

‘Have a nice life you lying a** b**ch. Don’t ever contact me again!!!”

But they are now back living together in Athens and Giegerich has complained that the pair were recently ‘interrogated’ by police over Debbie’s death.

No one has been arrested for Collier’s brutal murder, and there is no indication that either her daughter Amanda Bearden (left), 36, or her live-in boyfriend, Andrew Giegerich (right), 27, are considered suspects in the case 

‘She was a beautiful woman and I loved her,’ distraught Steve Collier said about his wife 11 days after her charred, naked body was found in a ravine 60 miles from their Georgia home 

Her son, Jeffrey, wrote a heartbreaking tribute to her on Facebook, saying his family’s lives were ‘irrevocably change’ after her death 

‘The [police have] interrogated all of us. The people who are closest to [Collier] are kind of looked at as suspects right now,’ he told the Post.

On Friday, Debbie’s husband Steve Collier fought back tears as he told DailyMail.com that Debbie was the ‘love of his life.

The couple had been married for nine years and both had children from previous marriages.

‘It has been a long two weeks and I’m very tired. My wife was a wonderful person,’ he said.

Collier’s son Jeffery Bearden wrote a tribute post to his mother on Saturday, writing: ‘I will never be able to fully articulate the loss of my mother and what she meant to me. She was my longest source of love, support, and encouragement.’ 

A close friend of the couple, who did not want to be identified, confided to DailyMail.com: ‘Steve loved Debbie with all his heart. I know that for a fact.

‘I cannot imagine what he’s going through right now, with the terrible loss of his wife and having to be part of the murder investigation and all that entails.

‘I have known them both for many years and they were a devoted couple.’

In a direct move of support, he added: ‘I know suspicion can fall on the family of murder victims, but I would bet my life Steve had nothing whatsoever to do with Debbie’s disappearance.’

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